


Everything Changes

by rarmaster



Category: Super Mario & Related Fandoms
Genre: ANYWAY!! POUNDS FISTS ON TABLE!! OT3! OT3! OT3!!!!, Multi, also lmfao does this count as canon divergence even though postgame stuff is optional??, and mario games barely have a canon??, this is an Oydessy fix it fic i guess??, we pick off where odyssey... ''ends''
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-15 18:06:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15418611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: “Okay Bowser, listen,” Peach said. “Actually, I have a proposition for you.”He looked no less skeptical, but now a little hopeful.“Yeah?”“Do you, like. Do you want to get married?”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this was only supposed to be one scene but after i finished the scene i looked at all the really good dialogue i hadn't used yet and i was like.......... no........ this must be longer..........
> 
> oh yeah, also: the canon for this is that every Mario character is low-key immortal and time passes for them the same way time passes for us in real time, because that's much more fun if you ask me.

“Enough!” Peach snapped, putting a hand up to tell Bowser to _back off_.

They were standing on moon after Mario’d officially thwarted Bowser’s latest stunt, but Bowser was still _pressing_ the issue.

Bowser recoiled at Peach’s shout, eyes sad, flowers still gripped hopefully in his hands. The flowers were a cute gesture, actually, but Peach firmly reminded herself that she was _upset_ , and that they needed to _talk_ because stars above this same old routine was getting _really_ old!

“Look, Bowser,” she said. “If you have a crush on me _that badly,_ have you maybe considered—I don’t know— _talking_ to me about it!?”

Bowser considered her with those stupid sad puppy-dog eyes for a second more until her words registered to him, and then his face scrunched up in something between anger and confusion. “I _have_ tried!!” he protested. “You never want to talk!!!”

“Well, gee, maybe I would, if you brought it up any time that wasn’t _five minutes after kidnapping me,_ ” Peach countered, shaking a little with her rage. She was _trying_ to be _reasonable,_ but he made it so hard sometimes.

“Wh,” Bowser said, the half-formed question coming out in a confused huff. The way he was so confused he forgot to be angry was… cute.

Ugh.

_Ugh._

Exasperated at how fond he made her feel, and trying to keep her thoughts straight, Peach turned to Mario for support. He looked so strange, without a hat. That suit was… nice, though. Distracting. _Ugghh._ Peach inhaled and exhaled through her nose, lips pursed tightly together. She couldn’t do this.

Mario’s face told her she had to, though, since she’d already gotten this far and they really _did_ need to have an actual conversation with Bowser about this mess. Mario’s expression was sympathetic, at least, as well as encouraging. Peach tried to be comforted.

Taking a deep breath through her mouth this time, she turned back to Bowser.

“Bowser, listen,” Peach said. “We’ve been, like, friends. For thirty years now.” Okay, they had only been friends for the last five or ten, but thirty years was an awful long time to know someone.

“Well,” Bowser began.

“And yet you’re _still_ kidnapping me,” Peach continued, wagging a finger at him.

Bowser pouted. It was less cute. “It’s the only time I get to spend time with you!!”

“Only time you get to—” Peach broke off, spluttering in her disbelief. Why was he _like_ this? _Why_ did she have a crush on him?? “Did we _not_ have a tennis tournament last week!?”

“But, like, alone time,” Bowser argued.

Peach let out a strangled kind of groan, though she was too flabbergasted to be properly angry. “What about, just, dropping by to visit, sometimes?” she asked. “Did you ever think of that?”

“Everyone in your kingdom hates me, though,” was Bowser’s counter, and, alright, Peach had to give him that one.

“Then you could… send me a letter!” Peach said, throwing her hands up. “Ask to meet me somewhere! That’s not so hard!!” She sighed, shook her head. “Honestly, I have to do that with Mario literally all the time.”

Bowser leaned forward, squinting. “You _do_?”

Peach pressed a hand to her face and groaned a little deeper. “Toadsworth. Is insufferable.”

“Mm-hmm,” Mario said, voicing his agreement. He and Peach shared a tired look.

Bowser looked between the two of them, then: “You would have never agreed, though! You would have thought it was a trap!”

Peach opened her mouth to argue that one: no she wouldn’t have, if he’d done it in the last month, and two: that he couldn’t know that without trying—except upon reflection of the second point she realized that he would have known if _she’d_ just sent him a letter or something telling him that, so. Mario was giving her a Look, anyway, and she tried to ignore it because he was right. He was right. She’d messed up on the communication front just as much as Bowser had.

Peach closed her mouth and exhaled slowly. It was… probably time to stop beating around the bush, too.

She looked to Mario, wondering if he wanted to take it from here. He shook his head, though, gesturing for her to go ahead. She hadn’t expected anything else, just wanted to double-check. (They’d discussed this already. The problem with Bowser kidnapping her again was mostly Peach’s place to speak. And as for the rest of it, they just figured Bowser would listen better, if the actual question came from her.)

So:

Peach returned her attention to Bowser. He looked skeptical, still a little pouty. Peach crossed her arms over her chest and cleared her throat.

“Okay Bowser, listen,” she said. “Actually, I have a proposition for you.”

He looked no less skeptical, but now a little hopeful.

“Yeah?”

“Do you, like. Do you want to get married?”

“WHAT!??” Bowser reeled so hard the moon gravity sent him bouncing back a couple feet, but he recovered and dug his feet in as he waved an arm through the air, spitting a little fire as he spluttered: “BUT I JUST- WE JUST—I JUST _TRIED_ THAT AND YOU BOTH RUINED IT!!!”

“Yes!!” Peach hollered back at him. “Because if I’m going to marry you, it’s going to be on _my_ terms, not with you _kidnapping me_ and forcing me to go through with it without even asking what I thought!”

“Well I didn’t ask because I thought you’d say no!”

“WHAT IF I’D SAID YES!!”

That stopped Bowser in his tracks. He blinked at her a few times, jaw hanging open. Slowly, he squinted, stepping towards her.

“ _Would_ you have?” he asked.

Peach took a second to center herself again with some deep breathing, doing her best to beat back down her annoyance. Bowser was _frustrating,_ but she _liked_ him, and: “Honestly?” she said, a smile breaking on her lips. “Yes. I would have said yes.” The smile twisted, though, as she remembered everything that had happened in the past few days. “Though I would have _seriously_ criticized the way you were going about it!”

“Honestly,” Mario added, with a disapproving little laugh and shake of his head.

Bowser didn’t answer right away, his jaw still hanging open. He looked… a little shell-shocked.

“You… actually want to marry me??” Bowser asked, like he couldn’t believe it. Then something seemed to dawn on him, and his look of disbelief slowly became one of crystalline comprehension. “You _WERE_ flirting with me at the tennis tournament!”

Peach reached up to run a hand down her face, exasperated, but she nodded to confirm. “Yep,” she said, then sent a grateful look at Mario. “Thank the stars he’s not completely clueless.”

“I knew he wasn’t,” Mario told her, but for all the fondness in his smile and the way he was looking at Bowser and Bowser alone, he might as well have been speaking just for Bowser’s ears. Peach thought sure that if Bowser could blush, he’d be bright red by now.

He spluttered a second more, then squinted twice as hard at Mario. “You were _BOTH_ flirting with me???” he squeaked.

In unison, Mario and Peach nodded.

“We’ve known each other for-a thirty years, Bowser,” Mario said. “And for the past five, I’d say we’ve gotten along pretty well.”

“We were hoping you’d like, get it, but I guess that’s on us for not, well, just having an actual adult conversation with you,” Peach admitted, grimacing.

“I told you,” Mario stage whispered at her. Peach shot him a glare and a “shut up”.

Bowser’s head swiveled back and forth as he tried to devote equal attention to both Peach and Mario at the same time, and failing that, settled for staring at them each for three seconds before turning to the other one. Both of them got the same slack-jaw, wide-eyed stare. Peach could almost see the gears turning in his mind. Finally they seemed to click.

“Okay wait, so like,” Bowser said. “Are you telling me that if _we_ get married,” he gestured between himself and Peach, “I have to marry Mario, too?” He pointed at Mario.

Peach nodded.

Mario nodded.

“You don’t-a have to say yes now,” Mario assured him, holding a hand up. “You can think on it if you’d like.”

“But we _do_ absolutely have to talk about the whole kidnapping me thing, because we can’t keep doing that,” Peach said.

“Right,” Bowser said, quiet. He sat down with a plop and a small explosion of moon dust, one hand holding his head. Peach felt a little sorry for him. Maybe they’d dumped too much on him at once.

She opened her mouth to speak again, but Mario interrupted with a hand on her arm and a shake of his head. Better to give Bowser some time to think it out, was what he was thinking. Peach sighed, but agreed. She took a moment to turn her attention to the Earth, taking up half the horizon, breathtaking and blue. She’d been too distracted to properly look at it, to properly enjoy the fact she was _on the moon._ Cappy and Tiara spun by in the distance, and Peach let out a startled laugh, somewhere between embarrassed and fond. They were cute to watch, but she’d completely forgotten they were here. At least it looked like they were too busy playing to have been eavesdropping.

“Hey, why don’t we go traveling?” Mario said, suddenly.

Peach turned to look at him, and so did Bowser.

Since he had both of their attention, Mario smiled. “I’ve got this ship.” He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder at the Odyssey. “And we’ve got a ton of kingdoms I know I haven’t been over every inch of yet. Lots of places I was hoping to get to show the two of you…”

Peach blushed. Bowser spluttered, for a second, like he wasn’t sure what to feel. Eventually he settled for being annoyed:

“Can you even fly that thing without that buddy of yours?” Bowser asked, eyes darting towards Cappy.

Mario nodded. “Yeah.” He laughed a little, the laughter bright and his eyes twinkling. “We’ll take him and Tiara home, and then get going. What do you say?”

“Of course,” Peach answered. It wasn’t even a question.

She looked to Bowser, wondering if she should say something to help convince him, but decided to let Mario’s charm work its wonders. After a few breaths, Bowser nodded. “Y- yeah,” he said. He’d absolutely be blushing, if he could. “We could do that.”

 

 

Peach and Bowser were having a dinner date at the fanciest restaurant in the Luncheon Kingdom. Mario’d needed to help someone with some problem, or had something he wanted to check out. It was one of those two things. Or maybe it was both of them. Peach got the feeling Mario was just making excuses so that she could have some space to talk alone with Bowser. She appreciated that, of course, but honestly Mario could have just _said_ so.

They were having some of the stew that they were _supposed_ to have had at their wedding—properly paid for this time, of course. Bowser was lucky that the wedding planners he’d hired did most of the dirty work, because otherwise he would have been banned not just from this restaurant but perhaps the entire kingdom. The stew was delicious, but Peach’s attention wasn’t really on it.

“Bowser? You doing okay?” Peach asked, a little fond, a little worried. Bowser hadn’t stopped looking like he was at least a little bit in shock since she proposed, a few days ago now. The dates seemed to be helping and making it worse in equal measures. His confused expression was definitely one of his cuter ones, but she was worried about how he was taking all this, worried he wasn’t taking it well. “You seem a little…” she began, but trailed off, waving her spoon through the air in lieu of finishing her sentence, not quite sure how to finish it.

“I’m fine,” Bowser answered, gruff and starting to glare. “Of course I’m fine! I’m living the literal dream right now.” He stabbed at a chunk of meat or something in the stew, which didn’t result in much more than the stew nearly sloshing out of his bowl, since he was stabbing with a spoon. “I mean, look at us! Look at this!!” He gestured between the two of them. “I would have _killed_ to go on a real actual date with you and now. Here we are??”

Peach laughed into her hand.

“Amazing just how well simply asking me out actually works,” she said.

“If I’d asked you out five years ago you would have laughed at me and said no,” Bowser countered.

Peach shrugged and nodded, because… he was right. “Not that kidnapping is the solution, of course,” she said.

“Of course,” Bowser echoed. “But, anyway.” He cleared his throat, then it was his turn to lean across the table, squinting at Peach. “What changed?” he asked.

Peach let out a long breath and leaned back in her seat, thinking it over. She stirred what was left of her stew idly as she tried to decide what to say. There were a lot of things that had changed, in the last five years, so much about their dynamic that had shifted. But she supposed the major one was…

“Think about what’s happened in the past five years, Bowser,” she said. “Or rather: what _hasn’t_ happened.”

Bowser’s face scrunched up, clearly not getting it right away. He leaned back in his seat as well, eyes distant as he thought it over. “Oh,” he said, after a minute or two. “Wait was it. When was the last time I kidnapped you?”

“Exactly,” Peach said. “It’s been nothing but Mario Kart and sports tournaments of all varieties for the past five years. Turns out spending time with you is fun when I’m not kidnapped?”

“Oh.” Bowser put his head in his hands. “So I kind of blew it kidnapping you again, huh?”

“Lil bit,” Peach answered, mostly joking.

Bowser groaned.

Peach laughed.

“ _However,_ ” she said. “It doesn’t really change the fact I enjoy spending time with you? The kidnapping thing is like, the only problem I honestly have with you. We have a pretty good relationship otherwise—I mean, remember the Rio Olympics?”

Bowser immediately lit up. “We _killed_ it as a team! That Egghead never saw it coming!”

Peach grinned. “Exactly!! It was _fun,_ and we got _along._ All we need is a new way to do this. To do _us_.”

“And so. Marriage, huh?” Bowser raised his eyebrows.

“I mean, me and Mario were talking about dating you just last week,” Peach said.

“Hence the tennis tournament.”

Peach nodded. “Hence the tennis tournament. The marriage bit was largely your idea, but… it’s not like I’m _opposed._ Whatever we do, it’s going to be a step up from the old routine, right?” She smiled broadly, feeling very optimistic. She just… “I just wish Mario and I had approached you about this sooner. It would have saved us this whole mess.” She gestured around them, thinking of the wedding debacle Bowser had almost pulled off.

“Me too,” Bowser agreed, with a short huffy sigh. He looked away. “I’m… I’m sorry, also. I should have listened to—” He broke off with a scowl, apparently not thinking highly of whoever it was he should have listened to. Peach doubted it was herself, since she hadn’t told him it was a bad idea _before_ it had happened. Bowser shook his head, then continued: “I should have actually asked you. Or talked to you at all.” He slumped with defeat. “Man, it seems so much more obvious now that I know you would have said yes? It’s stupid what fear of rejection will do to you!”

Peach laughed, short and fond, feeling bad for him. She reached across the table to pat him on the arm, and let her hand linger there. “Which is why I should have said something first, so you wouldn’t be afraid,” she said.

She sent him a gentle smile, and he slowly smiled back, almost sheepish.

“Anyway,” Peach said. “We aren’t really going to get anywhere tossing around the blame like this. Wanna order dessert instead of talking about it?”

“Please.”

Bowser raised a hand to flag down their waiter. Then he looked to Peach, eyes narrowed. “Who’s paying?” he asked.

“I will,” Peach said.

His eyes narrowed further. “You already said you’d pay for the meal, I should take dessert.”

“It’s not like I don’t have money,” Peach argued.

“It’s not like _I_ don’t have money!” Bowser argued back.

They stared each other down for a few moments.

“Fine,” Peach said. “Paper rock scissors,” she declared, preparing herself.

Bowser raised his eyebrows, laughed, preparing himself as well. “Loser pays?”

“Winner pays,” Peach countered, eyes flashing.

She won, but honestly, she preferred it that way. She ordered three slices of chocolate cake (they’d take one to Mario) with no regrets.

Halfway through his slice of cake, Bowser grumbled something to himself.

“Something wrong?” Peach asked, eyes pinched with concern.

Bowser sighed, tapped his fork against the plate a few times. “…this is fine and all,” he said, “but I’m worried a little about, you know. What are my subjects gonna think? They gonna think I’m weak? Giving up on the one thing I’ve been making them fight for all this time… Not to mention marrying _Mario,_ who is officially my sworn enemy, still?” He shook his head, looking troubled. “They aren’t gonna like that!”

“Yes they will,” Peach assured him, confident. “They’ll be happy if you’re happy.”

Bowser didn’t look convinced.

“And if not,” Peach continued, “then you can tell them to suck it up and deal with it! _You’re_ the king and _you’re_ in charge!” If her smile was a little manic, then so be it. She believed this firmly. “Honestly, you think my subjects are going to be happy about this?” Toadsworth certainly wasn’t going to be!

Bowser laughed.

“You know what,” he said. “I like the way you think.”

Peach flashed him a wider grin, triumphant. Then she remembered that regardless, they _were_ going to have to deal with the politics of a marriage alliance between their kingdoms at some point.

Her face must have shown her dismay, because Bowser’s crinkled with worry.

“What?” he asked.

“I just remembered how much paperwork we’re going to have to do,” Peach said, putting her head in her hands. Her head _already_ hurt.

Bowser recoiled, similarly horrified at the thought. “ _No_ ,” he insisted. “No. We aren’t even going to _think_ about paperwork on our date! We aren’t going to think about it for the rest of this vacation!!”

Peach laughed, feeling a little relieved. “Agreed.”

 

They were in the Seaside Kingdom. Peach had insisted on conquering the volleyball challenge, and Mario had said better her than him, and then he’d whisked Bowser up to the top of the lighthouse. Bowser was still a little bit in shock? It had all happened kind of fast. And now Bowser was standing close enough to Mario that they could brush shoulders. Well, figuratively, anyway, not literally, seeing as Mario was half his height and all. Still.

Mario was leaning on the railing, chin resting in one hand, his attention on… the view, probably? Bowser got the feeling that’s what they were up here _for._ He’d learned that about Mario, over the past few days. Mario preferred the quieter, sit-by-your-side-and-enjoy-each-other’s-presence kind of romance. Not that Bowser minded, exactly. It was alright to be quiet sometimes. It was just still weird.

The Mario thing.

The Mario thing was weird.

Like, the fact Mario had a crush on him? Had had one for a while, apparently? Weird. The fact that Bowser found he didn’t mind? That he actually maybe he returned the feelings a little bit? Even weirder.

Bowser let out a long breath, trying not to be troubled and just enjoy the view like they were up here to. It _was_ nice. All sparkly. The ocean breeze smelled good. If he squinted, he could see Peach, down on the volleyball court. She seemed to be having a good time. He watched for a few seconds, then realized that Mario probably hadn’t brought him up here so he could stare at his—their?—fiancé. Fiancé?? Was that even right? Sure, she’d proposed, but he hadn’t exactly said yes yet.

He was still trying to. Figure some things out.

He put his hands on the railing to lean, which wasn’t even really comfortable since the railing was _Mario-sized,_ and then looked at Mario. There was nothing not-awkward about what he was intending to do next, but he wasn’t going to figure anything out if he didn’t _talk_ about it, so:

“Hey, uh, Mario?” he said, clearing his throat.

Mario turned his head just enough to look at him.

“Yeah?”

Mario was smiling gently, looking so casually _content_ to be up here, and. Oh shit. Oh shit, yeah, Bowser’s heart definitely just skipped a beat in his chest.

“Uh,” Bowser said, thoughts momentarily derailed. “I was just. Well I was. I was wondering about, uh.” He tried not to scowl as his mouth worked. Why were words so _hard_!? “About… you? …me?” He gestured uselessly between the two of them.

Mario laughed, and it was such a fond sound that it left Bowser a little breathless.

“Honestly?” Mario lowered his hand from his face, dropping it so it hung over the railing. “I enjoy having you as my rival, whether it’s in tennis, or Mario Kart, or larger, more world-threatening things.”

Bowser blinked.

“Your. Favorite thing about me. Is _fighting_ me!?”

“I mean, I enjoy your company otherwise, too, but- yeah?” Mario laughed again, short and kind of startled, but his eyes were _burning_. “It’s fun!” he insisted, like it was no big deal at all.

“It’s _fun_ ,” Bowser repeated, a little dumbstruck. He couldn’t really believe what he was hearing, but he couldn’t really say he disliked the notion if it were true, either.

Mario nodded. Then he coughed and turned his head down, and he- he _blushed_. “More fun when it’s you than when it’s anyone else,” he mumbled.

Bowser forgot how to breathe.

A strangled kind of sound escaped his mouth as he choked on his next words and also all of the air in his lungs. Had. Had Mario just _said_ that? He had. He absolutely had. Holy shit. Holy shit? Bowser wasn’t sure how to cope, not even a little bit, because hearing that made him feel kind of like he was on fire. Mostly in a good way, but, _still_.

Mario was as red as his hat now, scratching at the back of his head.

“Sorry,” he coughed. “Coming on a little strong, huh?”

“A little,” Bowser agreed, still trying to recover. But he was. _Grinning_.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I _only_ want to be your rival, though,” Mario continued, kind of hasty. “I like doing more, er, _traditionally_ romantic things with you, too!” He chuckled a little, eyes out on the horizon again. The sun was setting, casting pink shadows over the ocean. The light glittered off the goblet that was this kingdom’s pride and joy. “But I don’t see why getting married means we have to stop being rivals completely. So long as it’s-a not over Peach, of course! I’m getting tired of that.”

“…me too,” Bowser admitted.

He was a lot more at peace, now, because this… this explanation from Mario was easy to understand. His feelings for Mario were… much the same, he was realizing, upon reflection, upon _letting_ himself think about it. He definitely wasn’t _against_ like, romantic sunset-watching with Mario, or cute dinner dates, but… The thought of losing Mario as his rival was kind of unbearable.

And actually wait a minute.

“Hang on!” Bowser nearly shouted, turning towards Mario. “But like, what are we gonna fight over? Not that I want it to be Peach!!” Of _course_ he didn’t! “It’s just- _Sure_ , we could be sports rivals, but tennis doesn’t get pumping quite the same, you know?”

“I know,” Mario agreed, with a laugh. “We could-a… enter into a fighting tournament against each other—Smash is only every once in a while, but we could try, say, the Glitz Pit? If you want a more serious sense of competition…”

“Eh,” Bowser said.

He understood what Mario was going for, but couldn’t say he saw the appeal. A gig like that—when it wasn’t Smash—was kind of like a job, and, no thanks. He already had one of those, and being King was the best job one could possibly have.

“Or you could keep making levels and I could keep going through them and fight you at the end,” Mario suggested, with a shrug. “I’d-a miss your levels, to be honest. _And_ I would hate to put half your kingdom out of the work.”

Bowser laughed heartily, because. Yeah. So many of the jobs he provided were in the stop-Mario construction efforts.

“You’d really wanna do that, though?” he asked. “As like, just a friendly thing?”

It was kind of a strange idea. Bowser wasn’t totally sure he liked the sound of it. He wasn’t totally sure he disliked it, either.

“Yeah!!” Mario insisted, passionate, genuine. “It’s fun!! And I’ll-a still kick your ass at the end every time, anyway.”

Bowser spluttered, offended. “DREAM ON.”

“Maybe if we make it a regular thing, you’ll get better,” Mario told him, winking.

“HEY!!”

He was angry, and flustered, but he couldn’t really keep the grin off his face either. Mario was laughing at him and he should be mad but Mario sounded so _fond_ and. That cheeky little smile Mario was giving him, the glint in his eye—they made Bowser’s heart like _putty._ It wasn’t _fair._

But, now that things were like this…

Bowser was pretty sure he didn’t want them any other way.

 

 

“Hey, Peach,” Mario said.

He was standing on the balcony of their shared hotel room, leaning back against the railing with his elbows supporting his weight. Bowser was in the next room over, because no hotel yet had had a room big enough for all three of them. It was quiet, this time of night in the Lake Kingdom. The smell of water was strong and soothing, even if it was a little chilly.

“Hmm?” Peach said.

“You sure you’re okay with this?” Mario asked.

“What?” Peach laughed, taken by surprise. “Of course!” she insisted, as she tossed her dirty clothes in their bag. She straightened and waggled her eyebrows at Mario. “You having second thoughts?”

Mario shook his head, smiling. “No,” he said. “I was just-a checking on you. I know the last time we really talked about him was… you know, before he pulled this stunt. Wanted to double-check and make sure we were still on the same page. Have an actual adult conversation—”

“Ha. Ha,” Peach said, no humor in it at all. She rolled her eyes and moved to join him on the balcony, though she ended up stopping and leaning her shoulder against the doorway. “ _Honestly,_ it’s fine, though,” she insisted. “Am I peeved about getting kidnapped again? Yeah. But this one was… kind of on us, for, well, not talking to him sooner.”

“I told youuuu,” Mario sang at her, his eyes glimmering.

“Shut uuuup,” Peach shot back in sing-song. It was loving, this exchange, but it didn’t make Peach any less annoyed.

Mario laughed and threw his head back. Peach shook her head and folded her arms across her chest.

“ _Anyway_ ,” she enunciated, perhaps with more force than necessary. “He apologized, and promised to quit with the kidnapping, so. Yeah. I’m sure about this.” She hesitated a moment, not sure if she needed to ask, but… Like Mario said, best to be on the same page. “What about you? I know he kind of drives you crazy.”

“Only in the good way,” Mario answered. He wasn’t looking at Peach, his head still tilted back as he looked up at the stars, his tone wistful and distant.

Peach blushed.

“ _Mario_.”

“I mean, did you _see_ him in that suit?” Mario countered, and that was all the argument he needed to give.

“Ugghhh, _yes_ ,” Peach agreed, burying her face in her hands. “He looked so good in it.”

“It was so distracting I almost lost to him. _Twice._ ”

“Did you see his _hair_?” Peach moaned softly. “It looked so unfairly good like that! He kept trying to cover it up with that stupid hat of his, but I couldn’t really tell him to stop because then he’d ask pointed questions I was too flustered to answer.”

Mario laughed, and Peach sighed, then laughed, too, at how helpless they both were.

It was strange, sometimes, to think about how much had changed between them and Bowser over these past thirty years, but perhaps after thirty years, a trajectory like this was somewhat inevitable. He’d been such a constant in their lives—even if the exact nature of his existence in relationship to them had changed, kept changing—that imagining life without him was strange, something Peach knew she didn’t want, and knew Mario didn’t want either.

“Think he’ll say yes?” Mario whispered, so quiet that Peach almost didn’t hear.

“I hope he does,” Peach said, dropping her hands from her face. She would understand, if he didn’t, but. She hoped.

“Things are gonna change a lot, huh?”

Mario’s tone was kind of unreadable. His gaze was still fixed on the stars.

“Yeah,” Peach agree. “But… Mario.” She laughed lightly, voice taking on a teasing edge. “We’ve been talking about this for months now. It’s nothing we aren’t totally ready for.”

Mario broke into a grin. “I know. I’m excited.”

Peach beamed back at him.

“Me too.”

 

 

There wasn’t much to do in the Cloud Kingdom other than enjoy the view, but luckily, that’s what they were here to do. Mario and Bowser had been too busy fighting to really enjoy it the first time around, and while Mario wasn’t sure Bowser appreciated the trip back, he was certain _he_ did. It was breathtaking! (Though, in hindsight, most of the places he ended up fighting Bowser were.) While Mario admired the rainbow of color cast across the sky, Peach bent down to stick her hand into the cloud sea around them. And Bowser…

Bowser cleared his throat, loudly, clearly wanting their attention.

“What’s up?” Mario asked, looking at him.

Bowser waited until Peach was a little closer, then declared: “Alright, I’ve made up my mind.”

Peach’s eyes lit up with excitement “Yeah?” she asked.

Bowser nodded, looking nervous and meeting neither Mario nor Peach’s gazes directly. “Yeah,” he said. He swallowed, then nodded again. “My answer’s yes.”

Peach gasped in delight and threw her arms around Bowser. Bowser laughed and staggered a little under the surprise partial-tackle, looking delighted himself. Mario would have joined the hug, but he wanted to check and make sure before celebrating. So instead he approached and put a hand on Bowser’s arm, looking up at him.

“You sure?” he asked.

Bowser let go of Peach, and her feet dropped back onto the cloud. “Yeah,” Bowser said, with a firm nod. And then: “ _Yeah!_ ” he said again, with much more force, much more excitement in his voice. He grinned proudly. “Of course I’m sure!”

“Well,” Peach said, kissing Bowser on the nose. “We’re glad you said yes.”

“O- Oh,” Bowser spluttered.

Peach leaned around him to look at Mario. “Right Mario?”

Mario laughed, and hopped up to kiss Bowser on the cheek. “We sure are,” he said, grinning as Bowser spluttered even more. “I’m-a really looking forward to seeing where this goes.”

“Me too,” Peach echoed.

And, after a moment:

“Me too,” Bowser agreed.


	2. BONUS: Junior Episode!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of dialogue re: Junior that I really wanted to use, but it didn't feel the same tacked onto the main scene so take it as a bonus chapter. boy I love Junior

“Gotta say, I’m a little worried about how Junior’s gonna take it,” Bowser mused, on the Odyssey-trip back home. The plan was to drop him off, then return the Odyssey, since the travel distance between the Cap Kingdom and the Mushroom Kingdom was smaller. Mario watched him stare out the window, looking troubled.

“Come on,” Peach said, before Mario could say anything. “You really think he’s going to be mad?” She elbowed Bowser playfully, leaning his direction with a knowing smile.

Bowser turned to her with a huff of a laugh. “Well, not that I’m marrying you, no,” he said. “That I’m marrying _you_ —” He turned his attention to Mario with a pointed stare, and then shrugged. “That. _That_ might be a problem.”

Mario raised his eyebrows, surprised. “You really think so?” he asked.

“He kind of hates you,” Bowser answered.

“Eh,” Mario said, shaking his head. “Not that much. Not anymore.”

Sure, fifteen years ago? Mario would have said with confidence that Junior absolutely despised him. But he would have probably said the same of Bowser, too, fifteen years ago. Now? Well, Junior’d grown up, a little. Maybe Mario wasn’t his favorite person, but most memories Mario had of him in the past couple of years were at least civil, if not completely friendly. There was that one set of tennis matches where they’d absolutely _killed_ it as a team, and Mario remembered it being _fun,_ remembered the excited high-five Junior had given him without hesitation when they finally won the tense final match against Waluigi and Toadette.

“You sure?” Bowser asked, skeptical as he squinted at Mario.

Mario nodded. “Absolutely!”

“Hmm,” Bowser sounded like he didn’t believe it. Oh well. He’d find out when he talked to Junior, Mario supposed.

“Hey, speaking of Junior,” Peach said, with a thoughtful hum. “Why didn’t he tag along? I mean, honestly, it’s kind of weird that you didn’t have your son at your _wedding._ ”

Bowser grumbled, glaring off into the distance. “He didn’t want to come,” he huffed. “Said he’d pass on watching me get my ass kicked again.”

Peach snorted into her hand, hastily looking away.

Mario smiled despite himself. If he were sitting closer to Bowser, he would have reached over to give Bowser a reassuring pat on the arm, but he wasn’t, and he wasn’t getting up to walk across the Odyssey to do that. He sent Bowser a sympathetic look instead, which Bowser probably didn’t see, but it was the thought that counted, right?

“He knew the wedding thing wasn’t going to work out, either,” Bowser continued, with a sigh. “Said I was tying too hard, and that it was never going to work, and that I should have just. Asked you. Instead of going through all that trouble.” He growled and shook his head, glaring harder out the window.

“Well,” Peach began, but Mario cut her off with a shake of his head. They didn’t need to rub it in Bowser’s face any further. Peach sighed, then said instead. “He’s a smart kid.”

“Yeah. Too smart for his own good.”

Bowser didn’t say anything else for the rest of the flight.

 

 

After a few quick goodbyes and promises to meet up soon, Bowser was left alone outside his castle gates. He watched Mario and Peach go, idly wishing he could have stayed with them for a little longer, but no, no. He couldn’t take a vacation forever.

Sighing, he walked up to the gates. The opened for him without him even needing to say anything, but:

“Sir?” said one of the guards, as he approached.

Bowser raised his eyebrows at the Koopa. Usually no one spoke to him when he came back from a trip like this. But then again, _usually,_ he came back in a really bad mood. Not that he was in a _great_ mood, now—he’d remembered the politics they’d need to fuss out concerning the wedding, and was also dreading telling Junior the news a little bit—but… he was certainly in a better mood than he normally was, huh?

Alright, he’d humor the Koopa.

“Yeah?” he said.

The Koopa blinked a few times at him, then seemed to decide better of it, or maybe just that they had no idea what to ask. “Nothing, sir,” they said finally. “Welcome home.”

“Good to be back,” Bowser said, heading inside. The gates rumbled shut behind him.

Junior met him in the entry hall.

“Papa!” he cried, running and tackling him with a hug.

Bowser laughed and caught him, and, alright, anxiety about the news aside, he _was_ happy to see his son again. “Hey, Junior!” he said, spinning him around once.

“You were taking so long I was starting to get worried Mario’d kicked you into next week, like, literally,” Junior said, joking and fond in equal measures.

Bowser wasn’t sure how to answer, so he just laughed again, short and a little anxious this time. Hoo boy. _Hoo_ boy. Junior got the sense that something was up and hopped out of Bowser’s arms and back onto the floor, squinting up at him, suspicious.

“What happened?” Junior asked. “Bad news?” Then he looked at Bowser a little closer. “ _Good_ news??”

Bowser squeezed his eyes shut a moment, wondering when the hell his son had learned to be so perceptive.

“ _Papa,_ ” Junior pressed.

“Not here,” Bowser said, because the last thing he needed was half the castle to know the news. Honestly, if even _one_ guard found out tonight, the whole kingdom would know by morning.

“Alright,” Junior said. He sounded skeptical, still, but happily trotted alongside his father as they made their way to some privacy.

Bowser’d tell everyone eventually, of course. But it wasn’t like Peach was going to tell her kingdom tonight, either. They both needed to wait until it was a little more official. And until they’d worked out some more logistics. Bowser tried not to think about the paperwork. He was still technically on vacation until he woke up tomorrow morning, and he and Peach had promised.

(Mario, the lucky bastard, didn’t have to think about paperwork at all.)

Bowser stepped into his room and immediately fell face first on his bed. “Maybe I’ll take a nap instead,” he mumbled.

“Nooooo, Papa!!!” Junior whined, even though he was laughing. He jumped on the bed and climbed on top of Bowser, prodding at his face. “Tell me tell me tell me tell me,” he said, giggling. “I know it’s good news, because if it was bad you’d be yelling about it already, so _tell me,_ I gotta _knnooowww_.”

Bowser grinned despite himself, fondness for his son bubbling in his chest. “Alright, alright,” he relented. He reached up and plucked Junior off his back, and once he was sitting upright, set Junior back down on the bed. Junior folded his hands together and looked up at him expectantly. Bowser’s smile became a little more tight.

Well. Nothing to do but get it over with.

“I’m getting married,” Bowser said.

Junior blinked a few times, then broke into a grin. “You are!?” When Bowser nodded, he tilted his head a little and gave Bowser a Look. “Did you actually ask Peach, then, like I _told_ you to.”

Bowser glared a little at his son, because, come on, was that necessary. “No, she asked me,” he admitted.

Junior laughed in triumph. “Ha! I said so!”

“You did not,” Bowser argued.

“I did _too,_ you just weren’t listening,” Junior argued back.

Bowser spluttered and opened his mouth, but couldn’t remember exactly if Junior had or hadn’t said anything about Peach potentially saying yes if he’d just asked her to marry him, so he shut his mouth again. Junior needed to stop looking so smug.

“Honestly, did you _see_ her at the tennis tournament?” Junior continued, with an exasperated roll of his eyes. “She was _definitely_ flirting with you, I don’t know how you missed it.”

“Shut up,” Bowser said.

Junior just laughed. Then something seemed to occur to him.

“Is it just you and Peach?” he asked.

“No, Mario too,” Bowser answered.

Junior nodded. He looked like he’d… _expected_ that? What? _What_?

“You aren’t… mad?” Bowser pressed, because checking to make sure his son didn’t hate one of his fiancés was kind of more important than the other question he could be asking.

“Nah! Mario’s chill,” Junior said.

“Oh,” Bowser said, still a little surprised. “Good,” he said. He squinted at his son, trying to wrap his head around how well Junior was taking this. “You uh. You aren’t even a little bit surprised by the news?”

Junior shrugged. “I figured the three of you would work it out eventually,” he answered. “I’m really happy you did!! The whole kidnapping Peach was getting old.”

“Yeah,” Bowser agreed, though he was distracted. “The… the Mario thing isn’t weird to you at all?”

Junior sent him a look. “Papa,” he said, deadpan. “I’ve known you’ve been gay for Mario for like two years now.”

“ _WHAT!?_ ”

Junior laughed. “I mean, honestly, did you hear yourself when you were planning this wedding stunt of yours? You spent just as much time fantasizing about the ceremony with Peach was you were fantasizing your big showdown with Mario!” He shook his head and rolled his eyes, though he was still laughing. “Weird kind of gay you and Mario have got going, but, _definitely_ gay, Papa.”

“I…” Bowser stammered, at a loss for words. He wasn’t sure which he was more flustered about; the fact he’d just been so thoroughly called out by his son, or the realization he’d apparently been in denial for _years._ Finally he settled on: “Don’t? Talk about your father like that??”

Junior grinned, cheeky. “Which one?”

“I.” Bowser couldn’t believe this. “You’re? You’re grounded.”

“Wh-” Junior immediately stopped grinning. “FOR BEING SUPPORTIVE OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP??”

“FOR GIVING ME ALL THIS SASS!!!”

“ _PAPA,_ I SASS YOU ALL THE TIME!!”

Bowser answered by pointing in the direction of Junior’s bedroom.

Junior scowled at him, hands still held out in front of him. After a moment he threw them up in defeat. “Fine, fine!” he said, climbing off the bed. “I’m not taking this grounding seriously because you’re being _ridiculous,_ but I’ll leave you alone for a while, geeze!” He paused, then climbed back onto the bed just enough to kiss Bowser on the cheek. “Love you, Papa.”

“Love you too, Junior,” Bowser said, putting his face in his hands as Junior left the room.

 

 

“Junior took the news well,” is what Peach heard the moment she answered her phone.

Peach laughed and exchanged a look with Mario, who sat across the table from her. They were at his house. Bowser was on speaker.

“Then… why do you sound so upset?” Peach asked.

“THAT BOY! IS TOO SMART!! FOR HIS OWN GOOD!!!” Bowser answered, and then immediately hung up.

Peach sat there in stunned silence for a moment, then Mario laughed, and she laughed. Bowser was so _ridiculous._ She loved him.

“Five coins he’s only upset because Junior sassed him,” Mario said.

“Five coins is chump change,” Peach countered, “but you can have it, you’re definitely right.”

Mario laughed some more, then reached over for Peach’s phone. When she sent him a questioning look, he explained: “Just need to double check those lunch plans we only kind of made when we dropped him off.”

Peach nodded, and handed the phone over. Mario dialed Bowser again.

“Yeah?” Bowser said, when he picked up.

“We still doing lunch tomorrow?” Mario asked.

“Oh!” Peach could _hear_ Bowser’s mood brighten. “Oh, yeah. Yeah! I’ll definitely be there.”

“You can bring Junior if you’d like,” Peach added.

“I’M NOT BRINGING HIM HE’S GROUNDED!”

“ _Bowser_ ,” Peach began, but he hung up again. She put her head in her hands, sighing. “He’s so stupid,” she whispered, caught between fondness and resignation. “I love him?”

Mario laughed. “Don’t worry, me too.”


End file.
